Military:
World War II
USS
Arizona Memorial
The
Memorial straddles the sunken hull of the battleship USS Arizona
and commemorates the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor. The Memorial was dedicated in 1962, and became a National
Park Service area in 1980.
The
USS Arizona is the final resting place for many of the ship's 1,177
crewmen who lost their lives on December 7, 1941. The 184-foot-long
Memorial structure spanning the mid-portion of the sunken battleship
consists of three main sections: the entry and assembly rooms; a
central area designed for ceremonies and general observation; and
the shrine room, where the names of those killed on the Arizona
are engraved on the marble wall.
The
USS Arizona Memorial grew out of wartime desire to establish some
sort of memorial at Pearl Harbor to honor those who died in the
attack. Suggestions for such a memorial began in 1943, but it wasn't
until 1949, when the Territory of Hawaii established the Pacific
War Memorial Commission, that the first real steps were taken to
bring it about.
Initial
recognition came in 1950 when Admiral Arthur Radford, Commander
in Chief, Pacific (CINCPAC), ordered that a flagpole be erected
over the sunken battleship. On the ninth anniversary of the attack,
a commemorative plaque was placed at the base of the flagpole.
President
Dwight D. Eisenhower, who helped achieve Allied victory in Europe
during World War II, approved the creation of the Memorial in 1958.
Its construction was completed in 1961 with public funds appropriated
by Congress and private donations. The Memorial was dedicated in
1962.
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